“Ho! Everyone who thirsts come to the waters, you who have no money, come buy, and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1)

Now in breaking down this verse we have “the waters” which is a clear metaphor of the Holy Spirit, and we have wine and milk that we can receive with no price tag. I can guarantee you that this verse is not saying come to ”the waters,” which is the Holy Spirit, and get a gallon of homogenized milk and a bottle of merlot. This is a symbolic passage. The wine is a symbol of the presence of God, and the milk is symbolic of the word of God – revelation. So we are told to come to the waters and drink our fill of the wine of the Spirit and receive downloads of revelation from the word of God.

Fire burns in the natural and fire burns in the spirit, water refreshes in the natural and it refreshes in the spirit, and this principle of parallels applies to spiritual wine. Spiritual wine is no different than wine in the natural, it will inebriate you. If we drink enough of the new wine we will become drunk. The Holy Spirit at times may come like sweet wine producing within us a holy intoxication, not like the worldly counterfeit that ignites rebellion and ungodliness, but a fountain of bliss bursting up from within us that produces purity and love for God.

The Prophet Joel prophesied of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in which he declared that there is coming a time when God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Many have heard this passage preached from the pulpit, but just a chapter later we see a further promise of God that will be fulfilled,

“And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.” (Joel 3:18)

Again we have new wine, milk, waters, and now a fountain which is to spring forth from the house of God. We are that house of course, and there is to be a fountain of living waters springing up from within us! Again these are all symbolic metaphors for the Spirit of God, except the milk which is revelation. Notice this phrase, “the mountains shall drip with new wine.” This is not literal wine, as if the mountains were flowing with rivers of your favorite red blend. God is pouring out the wine of the Spirit and this is a prophecy about it, it’s the wine of His love, and we must learn to drink what He’s pouring out.

Some people are offended that God would intoxicate His people, but Jesus is the God of celebration and joy. He is not a sober librarian who sits on His throne with a frown all day. In John 2 we see a Jesus who turned water into wine, six water pots about 30 gallons apiece, this would total 180 gallons of wine! Now that’s a party! The natural wine is not my focus here, (and this passage is in no way an excuse for natural drunkenness), this miracle merely demonstrates a spiritual reality.

“and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:9-11)

The key verse here is verse 11, this was, “the first of signs through which He revealed His glory.”

The word glory can speak of character, or one’s attributes. This miracle was not just some random display of power, there was a symbolic purpose behind it. This wonder is a demonstration of the Personality of Christ. It’s a revelation of His nature. You see, the miracles Jesus did were no accident, there is hidden meaning in many of the wonders He performed, they shed light on the character and nature of God. If we look closely we can catch a glimpse of what God is like through the miracles He did. Just like when Jesus walked out onto the lake when the wind was fighting against the disciples efforts to row. (see Mark 6:45-52) They thought He was a ghost, but He said fear not, climbed in the boat and the wind immediately died down. And it says in this passage, (and this is the key verse) “They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.” (Mark 6:51-52)

In other words the miracle that Jesus had done previously with the multiplication of food had a message in it that would help them to understand and respond correctly to the situation they were in. Unfortunately they had missed the revelation in the previous miracle.

So this is just one example that shows that some of the miracles Jesus did were in no way random, but had a divine purpose in revealing a certain truth.

I believe it’s no accident that Christ turning the water into wine was the first miracle He did. He intended on revealing a certain aspect of His nature. This miracle is filled with prophetic symbolism. In this case we see that Jesus is revealed as the God of the feast, of joy, and of celebration. He is a God of the party, Himself being the original inventor. Also we can see in this passage that this can speak of the Holy Spirit, because He is the wine of heaven, He is the celebration, His very substance being the reality that we feast upon, and delight in! After all aren’t we the bride of Christ headed for the wedding supper of the Lamb? We are headed for an eternal party and feast, and what is even more incredible is that it starts now, we are granted access the to the wine of His love as we are continually immersed in the Holy Spirit. He turned the water into wine, and aren’t we like 70-80% water? When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit He turns our water into wine and intoxicates us with His glory and love.

A final example of the wine of the Spirit is Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on all 120 disciples in the upper room. They went barreling out into the streets speaking in tongues and making a ruckus.

“Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.” (Acts 2:13)

Now one might say, they said they were drunk because they we speaking supernaturally in their own languages, but I would offer another look at this. Does speaking an intelligible language, look like drunkenness? If I saw an Arab whom I knew doesn’t speak a lick of english, suddenly break out in perfect english declaring God’s glory, I wouldn’t think, “oh he’s just drunk,” I would think, “this is a miracle!” The disciples must have been displaying some sort of behavior that looked like they had been at the bottle for awhile. The Holy Spirit came in a powerful way, and within ten minutes of that experience we have the first disciples being accused of drunkenness.

But here’s the catch, they were drunk. Not on wine, but on the Spirit of God. The new wine began to drip from the mountain of God just as the scriptures promised. They we so consumed they likely could barely stand on their own two feet. The Holy Spirit didn’t come like a water fountain, He blasted them with a tsunami.